Jose Mourinho is to be applauded for his stance on players who exaggerate challenges and feign injuries to con referees.

His latest outburst came after last week's when after picking up a after a clash with Jan Vertonghen.

Mourinho used the word "disgrace" to describe the over-reaction of the Belgian defender.

"Some foreign players, when they come to England, still keep their culture and it is a disgrace you do that to a person from your same job," said Mourinho.

"You need to support referees during the match, not to make their life more difficult and when nobody touches you or hurts you and you pretend the opponent touched you, you are putting the referees in a very difficult situation."

Quite right. Last Saturday at Fulham, Erik Pieters did nothing for Stoke's steel-hard reputation when Pajtim Kasami merely flicked back an arm and made minimal contact.

Pieters collapsed, and when his manager Mark Hughes sees the incident on video he will cringe at the Dutch defender's pole-axed reaction. Hughes would have had more severe blows in the pre-match warm-up when he was a player.

It was arguably the worst example of play-acting since Arjen Robben of Chelsea went down in a heap back in February 2006. The opposition was Liverpool in a Premier League game and goalkeeper Pepe Reina gave Robben the slightest of taps on the cheeck.

Down went Robben as if he had been by an almighty right hook. Reina was shown the red card.

"Robben deserves an Oscar," said the perplexed Spanish goalkeeper. And his manager Rafa Benitez prefaced his post-match conference by sarcastically saying he was off to visit Robben in hospital.

When told of Benitez's reaction to Robben's comical tumble, the Chelsea manager refused to get involved. "I am not interested in his comments," he said.

By the way, the Chelsea manager at the time was one Jose Mourinho. Yes, the same one who took such a justified moral stance at White Hart Lane a fortnight ago on the subject of Vertonghen.

Back in 2006, Mourinho was labelled the Special One. On his return this season he was the Happy One.

Perhaps he should also be the Selective One when it comes to observations about play-acting to get a fellow professional sent off.

Vertonghen was on his list in 2013. Clearly Robben was not seven years ago.